Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. A storm raged.

Zhao Li's weapon forging had temporarily overshadowed the matter involving Feng Ji. For Great Xia, Zhao Li's success was even more important than the birth of a Sunmoon. Great Xia still had a decent number of Sunmoons, but they only had a single earth weaponsmith. That actually felt quite terrible.

In the sky.

The golden stripes on the hanging hammer started fading away. On the first day, they dropped to only fifty stripes. On the second day, they dropped to twenty-five stripes.

The stripes continued fading on the third day. The removal was on the verge of completion. And completion would signify that Zhao Li was as capable as an earth weaponsmith. Even middle earth weaponsmiths like Hu Qi and Elder Chen couldn't guarantee that they could successfully remove all these golden stripes.

Inside the research center.

The pale Su Yu was getting slightly anxious, but he forced himself to calm down. After several days of forging, he had reached the limit of the middle profound grade after forging a weapon with fifty-four golden stripes. But he was still a tiny bit away from the high profound grade.

As for Zhao Li, he was sweating heavily. His speed had reduced considerably. After working three days in a row, he was feeling more and more pressured. He was currently on the verge of completion.

When only several golden stripes remained, Zhao Li said, "Stop. Later, I will forge the golden stripes from scratch. You will watch the entire process. Only help when I require it."

"Teacher!" Su Yu was feeling very gloomy. He was starting to regret coming here so early. "I'm still not at the high profound grade."

"Shut up!" Zhao Li said, "I'm telling you to watch as I forge the weapon, not the other way around. Kid, I'm warning you. Pay close attention. I will start forging from the very beginning for you. If you miss anything, don't blame me for being rude."

Su Yu said nothing. He nodded. Right at that moment, Zhao Li roared.

Boom!

The final golden stripe faded away from the massive hammer. A wave of energy leaked out of the weapon. From the pseudo earth grade, it dropped to a gradeless weapon. The hammer had returned to its original form.

Something Zhao Li had forged and sacrificed everything for decades ago had been reduced to a mold. Zhao Li inhaled deeply and started recovering his strength rapidly.

"When it is done leaking energy, I need to start the forging immediately. Watch closely. The strength used, the heat control, the forging techniques, the forging process...Since both of us have different characters, you don't need to copy everything I do. But as a whole, the process should still be similar. You have an advantage over me with your characters. The five elemental characters are very suitable for weaponsmithing. And since all your characters are human characters, they will also be more compatible when working together on a weapon. You only lack experience and strength. As for the forging techniques, I will teach them to you..."

Zhao Li started talking. He said a lot of things. Su Yu listened attentively.

After about half an hour, the large hammer stopped leaking energy. With a hammer in his hand, Zhao Li inhaled deeply, "The moment I start this, I can't stop or the weapon will fall apart and deliver me with a backlash. That will be very troublesome. Watch. I will be able to forge around seventy-two stripes, but I will stop at fifty-four. You can start helping me then."

Su Yu nodded. Zhao Li continued, "When helping me, time yourself well. You need to last a very long time. You might not be able to last all the way."

"I can do it!" Su Yu said, "I will start recovering now. By the time you're done with fifty-four stripes, I will probably be as good as new again."

He left one thing unsaid. If he couldn't recover fully and ended up not lasting all the way, he would crush some characters to supply himself with energy. He still had two Sunmoon characters in his possession. Both were kept in his storage ring.

At worst, he would crush those characters. What was there to hesitate? Yes, Sunmoon characters were very valuable. But it wasn't like he had never crushed Sunmoon characters to cultivate before. At worst, he would kill more Sunmoons in the future.

Zhao Li did not know what Su Yu was thinking. He would have never guessed that the kid would carry some Sunmoon characters around. And he would also not expect the kid to harbor the thought of crushing Sunmoon characters for recovery. If he knew, he would have beaten the kid to death for being such a wastrel.

Damn it! That was too much of a waste. In fact, a lot of Sunmoon cultural characters had only one Sunmoon character. The stronger ones might have several of them. And removing one such character from its master was very difficult. Previously, several Sunmoons had been killed but they had only obtained three Sunmoon characters. If it wasn't for the support of an entire prefecture, Su Yu wouldn't have been able to even get his hands on so many Sunmoon characters.

Zhao Li did not think too much about Su Yu's words. It was never easy to recover willpower. He was going to start the forging for real. A clump of raging flame appeared in front of him. His long, white hair whipped about. His body which was only covered in a pair of underpants went taut. All his muscles intensified as he swung his hammer down.

A large boom rang out.

That hammer strike was much stronger than any of Su Yu's hammer strikes earlier. With a rumble, the walls of the research center shook. Su Yu did not feel anything special, but the small hammer in his hand started resonating with the vibration created by Zhao Li's hammer and spread the vibration all over Su Yu's body and his sea of willpower. That gave Su Yu a somewhat numb yet comfortable sensation.

Zhao Li's stuffy voice rang out, "You can start forging your body now. Do that while watching me. I will try to do it slowly in the beginning. Focus on sensing the tempo behind my vibrations. When you start participating later, you need to maintain the tempo."

"Alright."

Su Yu nodded and started forging his body with the help of heavenly source qi. He had left Great Ming with around three hundred portions of heavenly source qi. He had used some while traveling, but he still had a lot left. He also activated the Source Soul Life Art and started farting as he cultivated. Zhao Li was momentarily stunned.

He nearly failed his forging then and there. He cursed, "I told you to cultivate, not fart!"

Su Yu awkwardly said, "Teacher, just continue. I'm not farting. This is the heaven connecting acupoint. This cultivation method can strengthen the body and increase longevity. It can also increase the efficiency of the absorbed heavenly source qi. It is an excellent cultivation method."

"..."

Old Zhao felt like going crazy. He was busy forging weapon while the damn kid was farting right beside him. Was the kid messing with him?

After a long while, he said, "I won't use this grotto anymore in the future."

"..."

Su Yu laughed dryly. There was no need for that. His fart could very well be of higher purity than the source qi generated by this grotto. After all, he was absorbing heavenly source qi. The fart he produced would definitely be as good as regular source qi. Old Zhao was worrying over nothing.

He decided to ignore everything else. This would increase his cultivation level greatly. He wanted to try completing his ninth body forging.

Zhao Li returned to his hammer and started striking the weapon again and again. At the same time, Su Yu's little hammer continued sensing the vibrations generated by Zhao Li and generating vibrations of the same tempo all over Su Yu's body and sea of willpower.

Outside the grotto.

The pounding sounds of the hammer could even be heard outside. These booming sounds followed a unique rhythm.

Right at that moment, Hu Qi and Elder Chen exchanged gazes. Next, Elder Chen said, "Calm down, everyone. Sit down cross-legged and sense the rhythm and the vibrations generated by the hammer strikes. This is an opportunity provided by an earth weaponsmith to cleanse your body and sea of willpower."

This was a rare opportunity. Of course, the vibrations had been weakened considerably since there was a grotto separating the source and all these people. Cui Lang was the one who was going to reap the biggest harvest from this.

Nobody knew if Zhao Li was deliberately doing this or if he had no choice but to generate these vibrations during the forging. Elder Chen wasn't sure, but he also couldn't be bothered to guess.

Numerous students sat down cross-legged and immersed themselves in the vibrations all around them. Under the effect of these vibrations, some of them found their acupoints loosening, as though these acupoints could now be opened with less effort than before.

Boom!

Boom!

Again and again, the hammer landed down at a unique tempo. Again and again, waves of vibrations spread all around the area. Slowly, a golden stripe appeared on the hanging hammer in the sky.

Mayor's residence.

After several days of observation, these Invincibles finally noticed something. Great Han King softly said, "What an incredible attempt. This fellow must have reached the skill level of an earth weaponsmith long ago. In fact, his skill level is probably comparable to a veteran earth weaponsmith. He clearly has his eyes set on the heaven grade. What a pity that Heavenly Forge isn't here. Otherwise, the two of them would have found a lot of common topics."

They were all seated inside a large hall. The scene in the hall was quite surprising as it seemed as though the space between them and the grotto had vanished. It was as if they were hovering right above the grotto even when they were actually still inside the prefect's residence.

The earth grade wasn't a low grade. But only the heaven grade was equal to the Invincibles in terms of status.